Open Source Development Labs 2005 Annual Report to OSDL Members 2 Open Source Development Labs Contents Note from CEO Stuart Cohen 3 Note from Linus Torvalds & Andrew Morton 5 OSDL Membership Profile 6 Major OSDL Programs 8 • Engineering 8 • Initiative Working Groups 9 • Carrier Grade Linux (CGL) 9 • Data Center Linux (DCL) 10 • Desktop Linux (DTL) 10 • Mobile Linux Initiative (MLI) 11 • Legal 13 OSDL in the News 15 Contact Information 17 2005 Annual Report to OSDL Members 3 Note from CEO Stuart Cohen In 2005, OSDL remained focused on its mission to accelerate the adoption of Linux and open source software. It continues to provide value to the industry through engineering, legal and marketing activities that increase technical capability, confidence in the adoption of Linux and open source technologies, and awareness of advances in Linux and open source software. In 2005, OSDL staff members were frequently called upon as experts and authorities on Linux around the world for the IT and business press, and as invited speakers at global technology and industry events. OSDL continues to be a trusted and authoritative source for information on a broad range of subjects, from open source legal issues to Linux on mobile phones, from Linux on the server and desktop, to kernel development and NSFv4 testing. Looking back on 2005 New Initiatives: Satisfying Member and Market Requirements Two major new initiatives were launched in 2005: the Patent Commons Project and the Mobile Linux Initiative (MLI). The Patent Commons Project bolsters greater confidence in Linux and open source IP for developers and customers and has already garnered the support of many industry leaders, including CA, IBM, Intel, Novell, Red Hat, and Sun Microsystems. Patentcommons.org hosts searchable databases containing more than 500 patents and more than a dozen technical standards supported by patent pledges and covenants. The library is freely available to developers, users and vendors, where they can quickly view information about patents and technology pledges benefiting open source software and standards. The Mobile Linux Initiative, launched in October with support from Intel, MontaVista Software, Motorola, PalmSource, Trolltech, and Wind River, was created to maximize the market opportunity for Linux-based mobile telephony devices. MLI participants focus on operating system technical challenges, fostering development of applications for Linux-based mobile devices, and delivering requirements that support the initiative. Working Groups: Bridging Gaps Ongoing work group activity was at an all-time high in 2005. The Data Center Linux Working Group (DCL) reported on the growth of Linux in retail and worked heavily on testing and improving NFSv4. TheCarrier Grade Linux Working Group (CGL) worked toward increasing Linux’s real- time capabilities, testing workloads, and increasing security and reliability while the Desktop Linux Working Group (DTL) finished 2005 with a bang, pulling 4 Open Source Development Labs together the desktop architects to create a common vision for the Linux desktop and launching the “Portland Project.” OSDL Engineering: Driving Innovation OSDL Engineering had a broad impact in 2005. Besides the continued development and refinement of the Linux kernel, OSDL technical teams supported community efforts in areas as diverse as device drivers and database workloads, targeting a variety of community and infrastructure projects. Looking ahead to 2006 This year (2006) holds great promise for OSDL and for the open source community at large. IDC predicts that Linux growth will outpace all other operating systems through 2009. OSDL plans to broaden its engagement with the development community, with new programs aimed at bolstering support for developers on critical kernel projects and directly including development leaders in setting the directions and priorities for OSDL. OSDL is also looking to expand its impact on the industry. As Linux goes increasingly mainstream, the issues and challenges before open source will begin to shift naturally to other areas. OSDL will shift its priorities and resources as well. We believe that the open source customer value proposition propelling the rise of Linux can also be extended to productivity applications on the desktop and even to programming languages such as Java. Indeed, the success of Linux has transformed business around the world. There are many lessons still being learned. A vendor neutral organization like OSDL – working closely with developers and customers – can play a critical role in the rise of future technologies that may prove as important as Linux. I ask you to join with us on this journey to the future. Stuart F. Cohen CEO, Open Source Development Labs 2005 Annual Report to OSDL Members 5 A Message from Linus Torvalds and Andrew Morton The message from the kernel team for the past year has been “steady as she goes.” The team at kernel.org continues to use the “new” incremental kernel development model, which has actually been in place for several years. With this model, the kernel team has been delivering enhancements to the 2.6 Linux kernel with significant updates made roughly each quarter. The various stakeholders in kernel development are satisfied with how the process is proceeding and serving the community. For example, features that vendors wish to ship to their customers are making their way into the public kernel reasonably promptly and with quality sufficient to ensure vendors’ ability to create platforms and to deliver them to market within short time frames. For the past three and a half years the public kernel has been updated at a constant rate of 6,000 lines added or removed per day. This level of activity, while responsible for the dynamic and rapid evolution of Linux, of course also carries with it challenges to maintaining code quality; with such a high change rate, regressions are nearly inevitable. In response, the kernel team is placing increasing emphasis upon promptly identifying and rectifying regressions. To support a higher level of quality, the team is investing in more formal processes. Probably the kernel development team’s greatest asset is the corps of individual developers and end users who download and test the latest development trees and report problems as they encounter them. Experience tells us that this community of testers is far more successful at identifying kernel faults than any formal quality assurance program. Such a community-based approach yields results from the broad variety of hardware employed by these testers and from the range of workloads they apply to the Linux kernel. 6 Open Source Development Labs Most of the members of our testing community are enthusiastic, community- minded individuals; many invest significant time and energies in making Linux better and do it “just for fun.” But community-based testing should not be limited to “grass roots.” The more testing done, the better Linux can be. To supplement and complement the efforts of individual testers, the kernel team needs the help of larger organizations, too. To continue building the test base, we encourage companies that use and deploy Linux and other open source software to allocate a modest set of engineering resources to help test the latest kernel development tree against their workloads, in the enterprise data center, on the desktop, or even in embedded applications. Only by continuing to grow the community of testers, will we be able to identify and rectify performance and correct regressions at the earliest stage, which benefits everyone. Linus Torvalds and Andrew Morton April 2006 OSDL Membership Membership Profile OSDL membership remains impressively diverse, with representation from nearly every part of the IT industry and Linux software/hardware ecosystem. Notable trends in membership include: • Influx of members from Asian countries, especially Korea • New members from the wireless/handheld ecosystem, attracted by the new Mobile Linux Initiative • Increase in ISVs, service providers and integrators OSDL Membership by Category 2005 Annual Report to OSDL Members 7 Geographic Distribution North America, while still the largest base for OSDL membership, now stands on par with the international roster. North American membership continued to grow in 2005, followed by Asia, where it is interesting to note that membership expansion came from outside of OSDL’s primary base in Japan. OSDL Membership by Region 8 Open Source Development Labs Major OSDL Programs for 2005 OSDL Engineering The following outline provides a taste of the important work performed by OSDL engineering in 2005. Device Drivers • Launched Open Driver information portal at http://developer.osdl.org/dev/opendrivers/ to provide resources for developing and merging open source drivers in the main kernel tree • Provided a repository for training material developed by kernel engineers • Hosted Open Driver forum Database • Continued support of open database workloads • Tested releases on platforms available to the PostgreSQL community to assure performance integrity and to assist in solid design decisions based on results • OSDL’s database tool kits were used by many leading companies and government throughout the world and averaged 211 downloads per month Networking • Acted as maintainer of iproute2 utilities, key to IT administrators needing to network large numbers of systems through simple configuration and management utilities • Acted as maintainer of bridging code following ANSI/IEEE standards to facilitate